Three persons, including an aged woman, were injured when some "chemical waste" exploded inside an empty dumper bin in the thickly populated Pethaniapuram here on Thursday. After cordoning off the area, the personnel from the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad examined the bin. A sniffer dog was also pressed into service. Scientists from the Forensic Sciences Department collected samples from the spot for analysis.

Senior police officers, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) R.Thirunavukkarasu rushed to the spot. The police said at around 9.15 a.m. a deafening noise was heard from the empty bin placed on the busy Ayyanar Koil Street, causing panic. Passers-by ran helter-skelter as the lid of the bin flew to a height of about 10 feet.

The explosion was powerful enough to cause severe damage to the steel bin, they added. According to Ramu, a shopkeeper, at around 8 a.m. the conservancy workers from the Corporation had lifted the bin, filled with garbage. After clearing the waste at Vellakal, they positioned the empty bin back in its place. At around 9.15 a.m., when a person identified as Murthy alias Ramamurthy, reportedly dumped some unused "chemicals" from his shop in the dumper bin, it exploded, the shopkeeper said.

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO -- A worker was seriously burned Wednesday in a fire at biotech firm Amgen while he was collecting hazardous waste, authorities said.
The man was involved in a quick, hot "flash fire," around 12:15 p.m. that resulted in him being rushed to the burn unit at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco.
No word was available on his condition, South San Francisco Deputy Fire Chief Travis Nuckolls said.
The unidentified man, who works for waste disposal and cleanup company Clean Harbors, was in the hazardous waste collection room of the facility at 1120 Veterans Blvd. when the fire happened, Cal-Osha spokesman Peter Melton said. The agency is investigating the incident.
Melton said the worker's burns were "significant" and the agency had an investigator at the Amgen facility Wednesday evening.
Amgen spokeswoman Sandra Young said workers were evacuated during the incident, but the building didn't catch fire and no one else was hurt. The fire is under investigation.

That inspection by both the Brazos County Health Department and the Texas Department of State Health Services uncovered aluminum phosphide — which local hazardous materials first responders say is an extremely dangerous chemical. Called Fumitoxin, it is a pesticide that requires a license to use.

College Station's Hazmat (hazardous materials) team removed the dangerous chemical from the BCS Asian Market to Fire Station 2 on the city's Rio Grand Boulevard, an action that required the entire area to be locked down Tuesday afternoon for about an hour. Even Fire Station 2 was evacuated for a time until the transfer was achieved.

Since it opened in 2006, BCS Market has been closed three previous times and now requires three inspections a year. In addition to the pesticide, the current closure was for food storage problems including rotten and moldy products, insect and rodent activity and cross-contamination problems.

A central Florida teenager who was accused of igniting a chemical explosion on school grounds — and who became the subject of a grassroots social media campaign on her behalf — will not face criminal charges, authorities said Wednesday.

Polk County State Attorney Jerry Hill wrote in a statement that the case against 16-year-old Kiera Wilmot has been dismissed, but that she must complete a diversion program.

The teen was arrested April 22 and faced possible felony charges after school administrators reported she combined toilet bowl cleaner and aluminum foil in a bottle, and the resulting gas blew the cap off the plastic bottle, according to the police report. The explosion happened outside, before school started, and no one was injured.

Kiera told Bartow police she was doing a science experiment, but science teachers said they had no knowledge of an experiment.

SIVAKASI: Three people, including a woman, died and 19 others, including a toddler, were injured in an explosion at Meenakshi Fireworks in Kichanayakkanpatti near Sivakasi on Wednesday.

The explosion occurred at 9am when the workers had just begun work. It was a small unit licensed by the district revenue officer. The victims were identified as Paramasivam, 58, Mariappan, 65, and Chellakarupayi, 25.

Sivakasi revenue divisional officer S G Rangan, who inspected the accident site, said the unit was involved in production of small fireworks, mostly light emitting ones. "Initial investigation has revealed that the workers were sieving the chemical mixture and one of them apparently dropped the sieve, which triggered the explosion," he said.

It took hours for the fire department to control the blaze and carry out rescue operations. One of the processing rooms was completely damaged while three more rooms and a shed suffered damage, the Maraneri police said.

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